The ongoing shortage of skilled workers, and the subsequent burden of long hours and employee burnout, continues to be a top challenge for IT departments and network administrators. Compounded by tool sprawl and rapidly evolving technology, the talent gap, argued executives at Auvik in its 2025 IT trends report, has led to the rise of “IT generalist,” defined as IT professionals who must possess knowledge across a very broad range of IT functions. “With an increasing eye on end-user experience, remote IT delivery and advancing AI tools, there is a lot on IT professionals’ plates,” said Auvik researchers. Moving forward, the gap in IT expertise is only likely to get worse. According to Auvik’s findings, IT professionals with more than 10 years of experience and the Baby Boomer generation currently experience the longest work weeks. Whereas 42 percent of Baby Boomer IT professionals work more than 40 hours per week, for example, just 29 percent of Gen Z IT professionals do the same. “A generational disparity in the workload is rapidly exacerbating issues around burnout,” continued the Auvik report, “since as many as 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 and retire every single day between now and 2030, leaving even more work for remaining IT employees.” Certainly, AI and automation will help with workload burdens and burnout by taking over many of the repetitive and reactive tasks that IT and network professionals admit take up an inordinate amount of time. Beyond the more mundane, however, the rise of IT generalists, “who are limited in the time they have in their day for researching the field,” suggests a growing need for advisor specialists who can assist with the more strategic outcomes of supporting the productivity of employees, securing resources and expanding their technological possibilities. “With a continuing talent gap and increasing tool sprawl, IT professionals don’t have the bandwidth to develop deep expertise in any one area of IT,” continued the Auvik report. “They must be able to manage a broad range of tools and IT functions, while relying increasingly on AI and automation to complete the more menial, routine tasks that historically have been major time commitments.” Where will these IT generalists likely be seeking guidance and expertise? A look at respondents’ “wishlist” of network-related activities provides some insight as to where attention will go once automation frees up brain space, since the lack of time and insufficient human-power are the primary reasons wishlist items are not implemented. In terms of specific technology categories, IT professionals listed cybersecurity planning, cloud computing, automation, backup and disaster recovery and wireless networking as top areas in which they would like to dedicate more time and resources. Far and away, the top wishlist item among IT professionals was “researching new technology” that helps them drive greater value and productivity and a better user experience, Auvik’s data showed. Is your advisory firm ready to provide IT generalist with this expertise? IT Generalists Need Specialists LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Contributing Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks News Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Zach Zohdy Senior Sales Manager zach@bekabusinessmedia.com (310) 730-8018 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2025 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNELVISION | MARCH - APRIL 2025
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=